Ah, the 360/75 at Waterloo. Besides being the home of some truely useful software (thanks, Bruce), I remember it because of an awful novel involving a human level AI running on that machine. It was considered a large machine at the time, but still grossly underpowered by today's standards and obviously not up to the task.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Phil Smith III <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 27, 2025 3:06 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: 3420 environmentals? External Message: Use Caution That's fun! I was working at University of Waterloo when they filmed part of a fairly dreadful movie called "Utilities" in the Math (and computer) building, including the Red Room (data centre). They wanted blinkenlights, and we had the 360/75 console still, so someone hooked up a Commodore SuperPet to make the lights flash. After the movie, the console was mounted embedded in the wall of the Red Room. That room is now gone, I'm told; no idea where the console wound up. It always amused me that what was a multi-million-dollar machine was being simulated(ish) by a lowly SuperPet! Of course another aspect of "movie magic" was that if one knew the building as we did, scenes made no sense: I recall that at one point someone opens the door to a lecture hall, enters, and is in the Red Room. Of course harmless, and done because the lecture hall had big, impressive doors--but quite jarring if you walked by those doors every day. Were you an IBM FE at the time? Or just in the right place at the right time to get the gigs? -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Doug Fuerst Sent: Friday, June 27, 2025 1:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: 3420 environmentals? I did another for Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner movie. I think it was Hanky Panky, but I really don't recall anymore. Had one scene they wanted a tape drive in. Made it move with a tester. Last one I ever did, as it then became a Hollywood set task, and unionized and I was not in the union, and did not want to be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
